16-Year-Old Sam Ruthe Runs U18 World Record 3:48 Mile at John Thomas Terrier Classic

New Zealand runner Sam Ruthe, 16, set an under-18 world record by running a 3:48.88 mile during Saturday's John Thomas Terrier Classic at Boston University.

That broke the new mile-time record for both under-18 and New Zealand runners while ranking as the 11th fastest recorded indoor mile of all time, according to World Athletics.

New Zealand's previous one-mile record had been set at 3:48.98 by Sir John Walker in 1982.

Ruthe recently set an age-16 world record last week with a 3:53.83 outdoor mile at the Cooks International Classic in Whanganui, New Zealand.

He previously became the youngest athlete to a run a mile in less than four minutes in March 2025, when he ran a 3:58.35 mile in Auckland, New Zealand at age 15.

This isn't the first time a runner has made world history on the indoor track at Boston University, where Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia set the previous world indoor mile record in 2019. The venue has earned a reputation for speed in part because of how the tracks are banked around the turns, per BU Today's Marc Chalufour.